At the northern tip of Via Giulia in Rome, you’ll find the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. The large dome that crowns this church is one of many that accent the Roman skyline. San Giovanni dei Fiorentini If it’s hot, airy churches like San Giovanni provide the weary pilgrim with a spiritual and physical oasis. Most likely, you’ll be...

One of the most paradoxical aspects of the spiritual life is the tension between human effort and Divine generosity. That is, the question of whether we are saved by what we do or by what God does. Confusion arises because we are quite clearly told in scripture that we must do certain things. We must forgive or we will not be forgiven....

The late 1960s were a time of social, political, and religious upheaval. Revolution was in the air and threatening all the most time-honored traditions and institutions. Then, as now, many were uncertain about the future of the Church. How could the Catholic faith hope to survive in an increasingly secularized world? What would the future of the Church look like?...

God, in His infinite love, has endowed each and every one of us with a body and a soul. How great God is in His wonderful gifts to humanity and to each and every one of us individually! The Psalmist praises God: God I am wonderfully created… I am your handiwork… I am the work of your hands. Indeed, we were...

Opening our eyes, we can see that the family in serious crisis. This being the case, as followers of Christ and defenders of the Domestic Church—the family—let us launch a concerted effort to save our children, save our young, by the means of saving our families. Pessimism, cynicism, and skepticism must not reign in our hearts, but rather confidence and hope that...

Recently, while traveling for business, I was tired after a long day and so began scrolling through the channels on the hotel television. Because there was next to nothing worth watching on the hundreds of channels available, I finally settled on a mildly interesting house hunting show. If you haven't seen this kind of show, the basic premise is that...

A friend recently remarked that it’s those that gather and control data that own the future. I understand what he meant (I think), but, if we dig a bit, I suspect we would doubt that the data-controllers of the day, however intelligent they are, have what we would call wisdom. Education today is ordered toward participation in the global economy. ...

One of the most painful faculties for a person to lose is memory. This is one reason why diseases like Alzheimers are so tragic. When a person loses his or her memory, it is almost as if they have ceased to exist both to themselves and those around them. There are few things more painful than speaking to a mother, father,...

Why do so many millennials become Catholic? It’s not because they’re hipper than thou, and it’s certainly not because they’re holier. Michelangelo’s writhing, unfinished statues of slaves, struggling in their prisons of stone, are a picture of millennial converts to Catholicism: broken and banished from Eden, stuck in the fallen flesh of Adam, yet baptized and brought back into the...

Do you want to be a radical Catholic? Maybe you do, maybe you don't. After all, the word radical can be a good or bad depending on the context. Sometimes it carries connotations of passionate commitment or admirable zeal. Other times, it can mean fanatical, freakish, or even dangerous devotion to a cause. But I would argue we should all be radical...

Man is formed by two main things: family and Church. God made the family at creation and made the Church at the re-creation through Christ. One we inherit at birth and the other we inherit at our second birth (baptism). What has happened in recent decades, however, is the unprecedented breakdown in both of those institutions, family and Church. They’re...

The world has gone mad. Unchecked by the free world, ISIS is spreading rapidly throughout the Middle East, and they have already made their presence known in Europe and here in the U.S. They have their sights set on the Vatican and the destruction of what remains of Christendom. Meanwhile, Ireland, one of the most traditionally Catholic countries in the world,...